Chavarie, Louise

Louise Chavarie is from a small fishing town on the east coast of Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec. She grew up surrounded by sea and fishing, especially cod fisheries. The cod fisheries collapsed in the early 1990s, and this experience led her to follow a career in fish biology. She did her master’s research in northern regions (Paulautuk and Kuujjuaq) on climate change and Arctic Char with the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Louise is currently a PhD candidate in aquatic biology working for the past six years on the multiple forms of lake trout in Great Bear Lake with the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She is conducting a lake trout project in Great Bear Lake in collaboration with the University of Alberta and Fisheries and Oceans, with support from the Sahtú Renewable Resources Board. She has sampled and spent time in every arm of the Great Bear Lake: McVicar Arm in 2005 & 2013, McTavish Arm in 2009, Dease Arm in 2010, Smith Arm in 2011, and Keith Arm in 2005, 2011, and 2012. Louise has appreciated every minute of her eight years of research in Arctic regions, and hopes to spend as much time there as she can.

Chin, Krista

Krista Chin, M.Sc., has been an Environmental Scientist with the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program (CIMP) within the Government of the Northwest Territories since 2009. She has worked throughout the territory focusing her monitoring/research questions on aquatic health of streams using the Environment Canada developed CABIN protocols. Most recently, she has started collaborating with the SRRB to conduct baseline aquatic monitoring work in the area of intense oil and gas exploration in the Sahtu.

Dunmall, Karen

Karen Dunmall is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Manitoba, working in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Her research focuses on using Pacific salmon as indicators of change in the Arctic. In the subsistence fisheries of many Northern communities, the types of salmon being harvested, the numbers of salmon being harvested and where they are being harvested are all changing. As Pacific salmon use both the freshwater and the ocean at different stages of their life, they can provide information about changes in these ecosystems. Karen is working with subsistence fisheries throughout the Canadian Arctic to document these changes in the harvest of Pacific salmon, and uses the salmon and their potential habitat to help answer questions such as: Where are these salmon coming from? Are they successfully spawning in the Canadian Arctic? Are they able to use the Arctic Ocean when they go to sea or do they migrate all the way to the Pacific Ocean? Do they interact with other fish in the Arctic? All of the Pacific salmon used for this research are obtained from subsistence fisheries, and therefore Karen is privileged to work with many communities, organizations and individuals throughout the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Karen has worked on salmon in the Arctic since 1999. She completed her MSc on Atlantic salmon in Norway and worked on Pacific salmon in Washington State and also in Alaska, where she lived in Nome for several years. She now lives in Winnipeg with her husband and three children. For more information about the Arctic Salmon project, visit www.arcticsalmon.ca or www.facebook.com/arcticsalmon.

Hodson, James

James Hodson is an Environmental Assessment / Wildlife Biologist with the Wildlife Division of GNWT Environment and Natural Resources in Yellowknife. Before joining the GNWT, James held a similar position with the Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment Canada. His work focuses on the review of industrial project applications, development of guidelines to minimize impacts to wildlife and habitat, and contributing to the development of wildlife monitoring programs to address cumulative effects. James has a PhD in Wildlife Ecology from Laval University, where he studied snowshoe hare habitat selection and changes in hare distribution following timber harvesting and forest fires in northeastern Quebec. James is excited to be working with the SRRB and Sahtú community members on the development of a community-based winter wildlife track monitoring program, and looks forward to learning more about the culture, landscape and wildlife of the Sahtú region.

Howland, Kimberly

Kimberly Howland has spent over 20 years conducting research on arctic fish ecology and population dynamics through university and federal government agencies. She obtained a doctoral degree in Environmental Ecology from the University of Alberta in 2005 and currently works as a research scientist with the Arctic Research Division of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Winnipeg. Her doctoral research focused on the ecology, life history and evolutionary biology of anadromous and freshwater salmonids in the Canadian Arctic and much of her subsequent research has been focused on trophic relationships, movements and population dynamics evolutionary ecology and critical habitat requirements of harvested fish species in large river and lake systems mainly in the western Arctic. Kimberly enjoys working closely with various aboriginal groups throughout the Northwest Territories in collecting and providing information that can be used in monitoring, identifying important habitats, and co-management of their fisheries.

Janjua, M. Yamin

Dr. Yamin is an expert in aquatic ecology. He has got more than 20 years of experience in fisheries and freshwater ecology research and management. He was born in Pakistan and got his PhD degree in ecology from France. At present he is working as Visiting Fellow with Fisheries and Oceans Canada at Winnipeg. Along with Mackenzie freshwater ecosystems in NWT, he is also working on trophic ecology of marine ecosystems in Nunavut. He is one of the co-authors of DFO Technical Report on Climate Change Assessment in the Arctic Basin.

McPherson, Morag

Morag McPherson is a MSc. student at the University of Alberta working in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Parks Canada to study Arctic Grayling in the Little Nahanni River watershed. Arctic Grayling are a widely distributed, but sensitive northern species that play an important role in stream ecosystems, making them a good indicator of general aquatic health. Her MSc. research focuses on juvenile Arctic Grayling ecology in northern mountain streams. This research will improve our understanding of Arctic Grayling ecology, distribution, and habitat requirements, as well as develop standardized monitoring protocols to assess stream salmonids and identify essential habitats in the NWT. Morag is originally from Carberry, Manitoba and holds a BSc. in Natural Resources from Cornell University. She has lived in Yellowknife since 2006 and is a biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. She has been fortunate enough to work with fisheries resources in the NWT for the past seven years and looks forward to undertaking fisheries research in the Sahtu and finding out what the streams can teach her. For more information about the Little Nahanni River Watershed Arctic Grayling Project, visit www.lnrgrayling.weebly.com.

Wright, Wendy

Wendy Wright is a Geomatics Professional who graduated from UPEI with a BSc in Biology before completing both an Advanced Diploma in Remote Sensing and an Advanced Diploma in Applied Geomatics Research at the Centre of Geomatics (COGS) in Nova Scotia. Immediately after finishing at COGS, she accepted a position with GNWT-ENR Wildlife Management in Inuvik, where she spent nearly 10 years providing a wide range of analytical and mapping support to ENR staff and outside agencies. She was responsible for the day to day management, mapping and analysis of satellite collar data, as well as providing support for survey planning and post survey data analysis. Other major projects included animating seasonal movements of barrenground caribou from telemetry data and working on a number of traditional knowledge projects. She currently lives in PEI.